Adrian and his older half-brother Jared were raised in the Hull House orphanage, which was actually a facility operated by the Canadian government's secretive Department H. While Adrian became shy reserved and bookish, Jared became athletically inclined, aggressive, and arrogant. Both brothers manifested mutant powers after puberty Adrian gained the ability to transform parts of his body into blades, while Jared made force field that could not be shut down. The brothers were recruited into a new incarnation of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.

They assisted the new Alpha Flight in battling several foes, including the Zodiac, the Brass Bishop, and Department H's own power-mad leader Jeremy Clarke, who died of radiation poisoning during a Zodiac raid on the Department H headquarters. Their Alpha Flight team fought several members of the original Flight and later teamed up with them to defeat a new Weapon X, who had been created by a rogue Department H scientist. Both groups of Alphans merged into a unified Alpha Flight following this adventure. The Corbo brothers and several other members of the new team were later reasigned to Alpha Flight's trainee team, Beta Flight.